Iran

Washington, D.C., June 18, 2019 — Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release journalists Ikram Rahimov and Polad Aslanov and drop the charges against them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Nicaraguan journalists Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda Ubau were released Tuesday after nearly six months in jail. The charges were dropped under a controversial amnesty law passed last week. In Russia, prominent investigative journalist Ivan Golunov was released Tuesday following an international outcry and support from the Russian public and the journalistic community, including three…

Journalist in jail for insulting presidentOn June 13, Yavuz Selim Demirağ, a columnist for the nationalist daily Yeni Çağ, started an 11-month and 20-day prison sentence for “insulting the president,” according to his column published the same day. The column featured an update from the newspaper that said that the journalist had turned himself and…

Mexico City, June 12, 2019–Mexican authorities must immediately and transparently investigate the killing of reporter Norma Sarabia and do everything in their power to ensure the safe recovery of journalist Marcos Miranda Cogco, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

In the past week, the Australian Federal Police twice targeted the media in the country in connection with leak investigations. On Tuesday, Annika Smethurst, a politics editor for the Sunday Telegraph, had her home raided and her property, computer, and cellphone searched. One day later, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in Sydney was raided in…

In Congress, bipartisan condolences for Khashoggi fiancée and calls for action For a moment, polarized politics took a back seat. Democratic and Republican congressional leaders gathered at an evening reception and lined up to offer condolences to Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who earlier that day shared gut-wrenching testimony…

Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri has once again been arrested by Nigerian authorities. Abiri was charged under the country’s cybercrimes, anti-sabotage, and terrorism prevention acts, to which he pleaded not guilty. Abiri was previously held without trial from July 2016 to August 2018. Also in Nigeria, new accreditation requirements have the potential to restrict press access…

Last Friday, between eight and 10 police officers executed a search warrant on freelance journalist Bryan Carmody’s San Francisco home. Police opened the gate with a sledgehammer, handcuffed Carmody, and executed a second search warrant on his home office. These actions were done as part of an investigation into how the reporter obtained a confidential…

This week, a Colombian court sentenced former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000. Pereira was sentenced to 40 years and six months in prison for the attack, according to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). The court…

The long-running political crisis in Venezuela escalated on April 30, 2019, after a civilian and military uprising was thwarted by the government of Nicolás Maduro, according to news reports. Opposition leaders Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo Lopez, accompanied by members of the armed forces, congregated on a highway in eastern Caracas and called upon the armed…